THREE FIFTHS

NOMINATED FOR THE CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 'Mesmerising' SUNDAY TIMES 'Short, lucid and harrowing' OBSERVER 'Dark, gritty and thrilling' DAILY MAIL 'Incredibly suspenseful' ATTICA LOCKE ***An Observer, Guardian and Sunday Times crime fiction/thriller of the month*** Set against the backdrop of the simmering racial tension produced by the LA Riots and the O.J. Simpson trial, comes this powerful hardboiled noir of violence and obsession Pittsburgh, 1995. When Bobby's best friend Aaron returns from prison a newly radicalized white supremacist, Bobby feels even more conflicted about hiding his own identity as a biracial Black man. During the night of their reunion, Bobby witnesses Aaron mercilessly assault a young Black man with a brick. In the wake of this horrifying act of violence, Bobby must conceal his unwitting involvement in the crime from the police, as well as battle his own personal demons. Three-Fifths is a harrowing story about racism and brutality that is more urgent now than ever. NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL NOMINATED FOR THE ANTHONY AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL NOMINATED FOR THE STRAND CRITICS AWARD FOR BEST DEBUT NOVEL

John Vercher is a writer currently living in the Philadelphia area with his wife and two sons. He holds a Bachelor's in English from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Mountainview Master of Fine Arts program. His fiction has appeared on Akashic Books' Mondays are Murder and Fri-SciFi, and he is a contributing writer for Cognoscenti, the thoughts and opinions page of WBUR Boston. Two of his essays published there on race, identity, and parenting were picked up by NPR, and he has appeared on WBUR's Weekend Edition. His non-fiction has also appeared in Entropy Magazine. You can find him on his website www.johnvercherauthor.com and on Twitter at @jverch75.